Alumna transfers to SOU for family and now practices law locally
Alex Watson ’10 first found about SOU because both of her parents met at the university in the 1980s. She attended Ashland schools for most of her formative years, graduating high school as an AHS Grizzly. Initially, she went to the University of Oregon (U of O) to get away from home. She had never considered SOU, being that it’s right across the street from AHS. But while attending U of O, she found that she was coming home to Ashland almost every weekend. More and more, the thought of attending SOU, made more sense and she got comfortable with the idea.
Alex made the move and transferred to SOU to be close to her family. Initially, she wanted to major in business but after taking a criminology class with a friend, she loved the course. Professor Lore Rutz-Burri became her favorite teacher in the criminology department and she changed her major to fit her interests. “Lore was a standout teacher and a great person to connect with. She was a hard and challenging teacher but she was very welcoming and open to all of her students. Her classes were close to what law school classes would be like and once in law school, I really appreciated how much she challenged and prepared me.” she said. “Lore continued to be a great connection, mentor and friend when I returned back to the valley.”
After graduating June of 2010 with her bachelor’s degree in criminology, Alex applied to several law schools and prepped for the LSAT exam. It came down to attending the University of San Francisco (USF) Law School or the U of O Law School. “Because the USF Law School was rated as one of the top 100 in the country, and allowed me to go back to California, I decided to go there. I had two weeks off from the time of commencement in Ashland until school started in San Francisco,” she said.
Alex spent five and one-half years in San Francisco. Her life would change dramatically though when she was hit in a crosswalk by a moving vehicle. She suffered through a traumatic brain injury and once she was partially recovered, she was able to attend part time. After graduating in 2013 with her doctor of jurisprudence, Alex took the California bar exam and passed it on the first try. She then got married at Callahan’s Restaurant on Siskiyou Summit to fellow Raider alum Da’Mario Watson ’10. She practiced law as a solo consultant for a year then they moved back to Oregon where she took and passed the Oregon Bar Exam and she had their second child. Alex took nearly a year off to raise her son then slowly began to go back to work part time as a legal assistant. She became the first associate attorney hired in a law office in Ashland, Anderson Bradly Krant, P.C., which is the largest female-owned and run law firm in southern Oregon. Alex focuses mainly upon estate planning, drafting wills and trusts. She also is the newly elected President of the Jackson County Bar Association.
“SOU is a tight knit community. I met my best friends there and my husband so it’s as close to my heart as family and is deep in my history and blood. After being at U of O with 250-300 students in some of my classes, it was so refreshing to come home to SOU where most of my classes had around 30 students. Lots of people come back to SOU because of that sense of family. I did and I’ll never regret it.”
Learn more: Anderson Bradley Krant, P.C.